Charles “Chase” Merritt, 60, of Homeland, stands accused of killing a family of four in February 2010 and burying their remains in the Mojave Desert near Victorville. His trial is now set for early 2018.

The attorney for Charles “Chase” Merritt, accused of killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, plans to challenge the evidence against his client in a series of court motions.

Merritt’s trial, initially scheduled to begin this month, has been pushed back to January at the earliest, said his attorney, Rajan Maline, who said in a telephone interview Tuesday he had already filed two pretrial motions that day in San Bernardino Superior Court and plans to file another five within the next 10 days. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8 before Judge Michael A. Smith.

Nearly all the evidence authorities have produced, Maline says, is faulty and does not prove Merritt committed the crimes that could mean the death penalty if he is convicted.

“We plan on challenging most of it, if not all of it,” Maline said of the evidence. “We believe (authorities) are either incorrect in their interpretation of it, or it’s irrelevant.”

Merritt, 60, of Homeland, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the February 2010 bludgeoning deaths of Fallbrook residents Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3. He was arrested and charged in November 2014 – a year after the McStay family’s skeletal remains were discovered in two shallow graves, west of the 15 Freeway and north of Stoddard Wells Road, near Victorville. Merritt is a former Apple Valley resident.

Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their two sons, Gianni, 3, and Joseph, 3, were discovered dead in shallow graves just north of Victorville on Nov. 11, 2013.  Courtesy Photo

Prosecutors allege Merritt beat the family to death with a 3-pound Stanley-brand sledgehammer, found in one of the graves of the victims, whose bodies were stacked two to a grave, each parent in a separate grave with one of their children. The skeletal remains had multiple fractures to the heads, extremities and torso areas, authorities said.

Merritt has pleaded not guilty to the crimes.

Financial gain was why Merritt killed the family, according to San Bernardino County sheriff’s detectives, who testified during Merritt’s preliminary hearing that he had a proclivity for gambling and had written multiple checks, totaling more than $21,000, on Joseph McStay’s QuickBooks account in the weeks after the McStay family were last seen on Feb. 4, 2010. DNA matching Merritt’s was taken from the steering wheel and gearshift handle of the McStay’s Isuzu Trooper, which was found abandoned at the Mexican border shortly after the family was last seen alive, according to testimony from the hearing.

Maline said that DNA evidence was a trace amount and was likely mixed with that of Joseph McStay when the two last met up and shook hands following a business meeting at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga.

The McStay family’s disappearance remained a mystery for four years, generating widespread public interest and fueling gossip about what happened to the family, the most popular being that the family was abducted and killed by Mexican drug lords.

Maline said he is requesting in one of his motions that photos of the family, either candid family photos or those of the skeletal remains found in the graves, be shown sparingly, as it could engender sympathy from the jury and prejudice the jury against Merritt.

“There’s a place for some photographs, but we don’t think it’s fair to anybody to overuse these photos,” he said. “Everything in this case calls for people’s prejudices to be heightened.”

District Attorney’s Office spokesman Christopher Lee was out of the office Tuesday and couldn’t be reached for comment.

Joe Nelson is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for The Sun since November 1999. He started as a crime reporter and went on to cover a variety of beats including courts and the cities of Colton, Highland and Grand Terrace. He has covered San Bernardino County since 2009. Nelson is a graduate of California State University Fullerton. In 2014, he completed a fellowship at Loyola Law School's Journalist Law School program.

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